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Last year I cut and treated some buckthorn, this is what mostly came back. Does anyone know what type of plant this is? I'm in the Northern Kettle Moraine, Fond du lac, co
Closer look ( sorry for the sideways picture)
Google Wild Chervil and see if it is that.
Thanks Treefarm ,its not Wild Chervil, I believe it is Sweet Clover
Here is a tip if you remove large Mother buckthorn trees: Once the mature buckthorn tree is removed, it exposes the soil to heat and sunlight. All those berries containing multiple seeds take advantage of that and sprout (this is where most buckthorn removal efforts fail as people don’t realize there is this flush).
To kill those thousands of new seedlings and spare native flowers and tree seedlings, target about October 20th. Look for that time period when native trees have dropped their leaves and native plants are dormant. Ensure buckthorn leaves are succulent (rip the leaves and you get uneven tear). At this time, spray an herbicide in water, e.g. Triclopyr, Roundup. Spray the leaves and do a massive buckthorn kill without killing native plants or seedlings.
I prefer Triclopyr because it doesn’t kill grasses when mixed at lower concentrations in water.
A second failure mode of buckthorn removal is when people cut mature buckthorn without treating the stumps. That is a double whammy! Not only do you get new seedling sprouts, you get multiple stump resprouts. That situation is the WORST.
BTW, my second guess was Queen Anne’s Lace.
Thanks for the tips! One good thing is I did treat the stumps after cutting!
I had a ton of buckthorn in my yard when we bought this place. I did a good job turning it into a lawn but I'm feeling the pain of what treefarm says about the seeds. In the tradition areas and landscape areas I have buckthorn constantly springing on me.
I used to think basil treatment of BT had to be in fall. Not true, I did a lot of basil treatment this spring when the BT was somewhat leafed out so you could pick them out but there was very little other small or larger trunk type species with leafs. A second pass later on the 1-4' stuff showed that I did miss a fair amount of small stuff on the first pass that I presume just did not have leafs when I did the first pass. But it did prove that the first pass worked well. In another area that I thought I had under good control I even found two 3" diameter BT 'trees' that I had missed in at least 6 previous treatments of that same area and a whole lot of BT stems that were under 12 inches high.
Tweed, some of what you mentioned about transition areas sometimes is due to tweety birds. They seem to light along edges. Anywhere they land, they crap. I also see those little bastards spreading buckthorn amongst my prairie crabapple trees. Not sure where they find buckthorn with berries because I thought I have cleared mature buckthorn a half mile of my property (imagine a radar screen with the arm sweeping, lol).
Buckthorn will remain one of the top destructive forces of woodlands. The quality of woodland diminishes slowly and before too long, woodland owners are left with very poor quality habitat with no value in trees. Early detection and lots of time me spent is needed. Education is very key, but in the end, many landowners don’t care as the future is something they don’t grasp. I digress.
I wish we could have a say in treating buckthorn on public land.
Is it true that Wisconsin has a program that pays landowners, at least somewhat, to remove buckthorn (and plant trees)?
Sweetclover.
South Farm - Talk to your County forester. If you have a management plan in place (e.g.MFL) you can get a grant to kill BT, etc.
Also, Treefarm, can you publish what your mix is when doing that foliar spraying of those small BT? Both for triclopyr and glyphosate.
Thanks!
The DNR has funding available through WFLGP, some counties have funding through their forestry or conservation office, and NRCS has money available. NRCS is probably the most viable option.
Badger Bucks, for foliar spraying, I mix at 4.5%. Some will do less, some will do more. I use what has worked for me.
The theoretical formulation consists 5.76 oz herbicide and 122.24 oz water.
The only change I would make is when using glyphosate, I would add 1-2 oz MSO as a tackafier. If using the ester of Triclopyr (4 vs. 3), no MSO needed.
McCarthy wildlife management area south of Kellog MN had a good start of buckthorn about 10 years ago when I last hunted in that area. If it has not been treated since then it has to be a mess by now. If anyone has the time and desire to do something to benefit public hunting land then talk to your DNR, city, county, state officials and maybe organize a group of people to attack that menace on public land.
I have been coaxing a local city park to get their badly infected areas treated for over a year now. They never have the time.
More and more I hear about goats being used to clear buckthorn. Seems like a non-invasive idea on the surface, and probably looks good when they're done, but aren't those goats pooping and spreading seeds?
That plus I doubt if goats eat the roots. Also I would like to see a goat eat a 3" diameter buckthorn. Then there are the desirable young trees that they would also chew up. Yup, the seeds will come out the back end. Triclopyr is much more effective.
A neighbor of one my hunting spots has goats. She has some movable fence that she keeps re-positioning to focus the goats where the BT is. It seems to be working but it is a continuous thing just like spraying is. Either way you need to keep ahead of it.
I bet the goats eat the berries too. Is their digestive system good enough to digest the seeds? If not, every berry has at a guess of a half dozen seeds in it.
Rather than cutting and treating the stump have you ever tried pulling the tree out in it's entirety, roots and all...say when it's 2-3" in diameter? Would that work better?
I do pull BT out by the roots but I only do it when I stumble across a few small ones while walking by. 2-3 inch would require equipment or a tool to get a lot of leverage. Pulling by hand gets a bit hard at half inch diameter and somewhere around an inch gets really hard depending on how loose the soil is. Way easier to treat it standing or cut it off and treat the stump.
I was just wondering...seen Northern Tool has brush puller that bites down on the stump and then you use an ATV or tractor to pull it out. Probably not what it's cracked up to be considering it would require two people to use.
I have always wondered if you pull BT out but some of the root stays in the ground. Is that portion of root that didn't come out viable and gonna come back with a new stem?
